Minami-ke Tadaima’s 1st PV: get high with new OP Shiawase High Tension

One of the hallmarks of the Minami-ke TV anime series, now in its fourth season with January 2013′s Minami-ke Tadaima, is its upbeat, infectiously catchy opening and ending themes, always performed by Rina Sato, Marina Inoue, and Minori Chihara – the voice actresses who play the comedy gag anime’s protagonists, sisters Haruka (eldest), Kana (middle child) and Chiaki (youngest) Minami.

That part hasn’t changed one bit in this fourth season, as you’ll tell in a moment by watching Minami-ke Tadaima’s first promo video trailer.

The new season’s opening theme, Shiawase High Tension (シアワセ☆ハイテンション↑↑ or Happiness High Tension) is every bit classic Minami-ke, complete with an “M-I-N-A-M-I-K-E, let’s go” chant thrown in at the most vicarious points of the song.

What has changed in the fourth season of the TV series is a new director – well, a different one has taken the helm every season.

This time around the hot seat’s fallen to Keiichiro Kawaguchi (Mayo Chiki, Zettai Karen Children, Minami-ke Omatase). The new season is also now produced by studio Feel (who also did Minami-ke Omatase), instead of Asread, the studio responsible for the first three TV anime seasons.

Minami-ke Tadaima is slated to premiere on Tokyo TV late on January 5 (technically January 6, since the broadcast is after midnight).

The show’s opening theme, Shiawase High Tension, will also released as a CD single (paired with Triple Attention, the opening theme to Minami-ke’s Web Radio series) on January 23, 2013.

Source: SGCafe

New Magi OP and ED songs by Porno Grafitti and supercell

It has been announced that Porno Grafitti and supercell are the artists for the second set of theme songs for Magi. The former will perform the opening song and the latter will be singing the ending song.

We have yet to hear the title of the song by supercell, but Porno Grafitti has already revealed that their single, Matataku hoshi no shita de, will be featured as Magi’s second opening song.

Source: SGCafe

New Figure for Lelouch Lamperouge

Hyper Hobby magazine has announced that the SH FiguArts Zero is slated for an April 2013 release in Japan.

This gallant figure of Code Geass‘ antihero stands 140 millimeters tall and comes with an alternate head. You can also remove the cape and interchange the hands. Upon release, the SH FiguArts Zero will cost 3,990 JPY (around 47 USD).

Source: SGCafe

'Kuroko no Basuke' Anime Gets 2nd Season

Shueisha's Shonen Jump Next magazine is announcing on Friday that production on a second season of the Kuroko's Basketball anime has been green-lit. The first season based on Tadatoshi Fujimaki's manga ran from April to September of this year.

Source: ANN

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F (PS3) accessory set comes with skins for every PS3 model in existence

Also contained in this seven-item PS3 accessories set are a Dual Shock 3 controller skin, a controller stand, mascot figure, cleaning cloth, a charm strap, and a set of four (earphone) cord managers themed after Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin, Kagamine Len, and Megurine Luka.

The Dual Shock 3 controller skin and stand, as well as the Hatsune Miku mascot figure contained in the pack can be seen in the image above.

And here are what the cleaning cloth, charm strap, and set of four cord managers look like:

Cleaning cloth

Charm strap

Cord managers

Design A

Design B

As for the PS3 skins, if you own the latest “super slim” model, you have a choice between two designs (both are apparently included in the pack, and you’re encouraged to swap between them the same way you do Vocaloid modules in Hatsune Miku: Project Diva games):

Owners of the previous model, the “slim” PS3, will have quite a little more real estate to work with, so an image of Hatsune Miku herself will actually grace the top of your console:

As for gamers who own the gigantic first-generation model of the PS3 (like myself), well, that’seven more real estate:

If you happen to more than one of the three types of PS3s as shown above, then you’re in luck: all four of the skins above will be included in the pack. It strikes me as a little odd, since normally it’s pretty costly to buy just one PS3 skin alone, much like get a pack of four skins (at least two of which the typical PS3 user would not lead) as well as a bunch of other cool accessories.

But according to this image provided by Amazon Japan, everything does indeed come in one package.

Price for the entire pack? According to Sega, the recommended retail price is 4,179 yen including tax.

But! If you go to Amazon Japan now, you’ll see that they’re offering a discount for the set, slashing the price down to 3,409 yen for the whole thing!

On AmiAmi (who ships internationally), the same set can also be pre-ordered for 3,540 yen(not including shipping).

For that price it’s quite unbelievable that Sega is including four PS3 skins in one package, but if you try to order the accessories set there does not seem to be a field where you can indicate which PS3 skin you’d like. There’s also no other indication that each customer is entitled to only one of the PS3 skins per pack.

Regardless, if you want this, you ought to pre-order it right away. On Amazon’s site at least, they’ve said that they are anticipating high demand for the item, and thus will allow only one order per customer.

The Hatsune Miku Project Diva F PS3 accessories set comes out the same day as the game itself, on March 7, 2013.

Source: SGCafe